If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Where to Keep Pack/Gear, Keep Dry?

I'm just curious as to what everyone does for keeping their pack and gear dry when hanging in the rain. Do you use a pack cover and load everything in there? Have you had any trouble with water pooling on the bottom of the cover (open on the back side)? Do you lay your pack against a tree? Lay it back-side to the ground? Hang it all under your hammock? Hang the pack with the gear from a tree?

I've left my pack out in the rain before and had water pooled on the bottom of my cover, thats why I ask. I leaned it up against a tree with the pack cover on but that didn't keep all the water out. I've thought about the hanging method but I would have to have some other kind of cover that would enclose the back panel/straps/suspension to keep all the water out.

There have been times I've used the pack cover and hung it on the hammock suspension line or on the tree. If using a trash bag for a cover, I completely close the bag. If using my gear hammock/pack cover, I cinch the cover down in such a way that it completely enclosed the pack with the strap side of the pack facing in to the hammock and the covered side out towards the open but still just under the tarp.

More often than not, my pack is empty when it's time for bed, (kitchen and food hung, clothing bag for a pillow, other spare parts clipped to my ridge line), and I put it in the hammock under my feet.

Sometimes I leave it out on the ground under my hammock on a piece of Tyvek I use as a "door mat".

Stuff on the ground underneath the hammock stays pretty dry - remember there's going to be a tarp over it extending a number of feet in any direction.

Pack cover and hanging from the foot end of the hammock has also worked for me. The tarp should be keeping the end of the hammock dry, so the top of the pack should be dry too. I've put stuff like water filter and cookware in the pack, but clothes go in the shelf (Blackbird!) or on me.

In areas with pack-snatching bears, the pack goes under my feet inside the hammock.

Just be sure that if you are putting your stuff on the ground that when it rains that area doesn't turn into a lake or river. Happened to me once, & it wasn't a lake as much as a really deep swampy area. Answering the call I stepped into about 8" of very very cold water, (The Army Core of Engineers lake I was camped near had ice on it) Thankfully, everything (even my boots) was hanging from the ridgeline of my hammock, so everything except my feet & lower legs stayed dry.
As an afterthought, IF I had been tenting, I would have thought this site the perfect place to go to ground. That seriously would not have been good I'm thinking. As it was, I took care of business, wiped off my wet feet & went back to bed. The rain stopped by the time I got up next morning & about 2 hrs later I was hanging over "dry" ground.

My gear hangs from my ridgeline every time now. AND, I'm a bit better at site selection now.

When you have a backpack on, no matter where you are, you’re home.
PAIN is INEVITABLE. MISERY is OPTIONAL.

I just do one of all of those. Usually throw it under the hammock or hang it from the hammock suspension. If not to heavy and raining I think the tarp ridge line would be good too if under the tarp line is your thing. If its dry out I set it by a tree or somewhere and wrap it in a trash bag in case of sprinkles.

I'm weird about organization at camp. I don't like things to be in the pack so I plan on making some storages shelf that can be hung at the end of my suspension. Pretty much like the 2qzq organizer but I'd prefer to have one hanging from a single point vertically so if it rains I don't have a big thing hanging from my ridge line. I actually get a certain level of anxiety and have a hard time relaxing at camp if my stuff isn't organized,haha. I may be the first. Bringing less stuff helps though.

If I have food in mine, I zip tie a big black trash bag over it and hang it high. No chance of rain/ no food, under the tarp with me. Rain/ no food, in the black bag, under the tarp. It's a large ALICE pack. No way that's going in the hammock with me. LOL

We must all learn to live together as brothers--or we will all perish together as fools. MLK

Wouldn't it be better to bear bag your pack, rather than possibly having food smells from your pack inviting Yogi in?

I'm waiting on my Dutch bridgeskin..then my pack is my hammock.

Nope. It's not about the food smell. All my food is in the bear canister, where it stays for the duration of the trip.

Bears in Yosemite know what a pack looks like. Also what an ice chest looks like. If you leave an empty, clean pack somewhere, they will grab it - if you leave an empty clean ice chest in the back of the car, they'll break into the car.

Bears in Yosemite figured out how to defeat even properly hung bear bags, so that just does not work. They do not bother people's shelters, however, unless you have actual food inside with you.